Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State in an interview revealed that all is not well within the party.

This became evident by the fact that only one of the party's twelve governors—out of the council's 128 members—attended its inauguration yesterday at the national secretariat.

Ortom had expressed disappointment in the party leadership's failure to address members' concerns during interview.

He cited an example with the decision of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to ignore the choice of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State as running mate.

He said: “I was among the 17-member committee set up by Atiku and 14 of us in the committee said the person should be Wike. Unfortunately, Atiku picked Okowa in his wisdom.

“You cannot ignore the decision of a committee you set up yourself and expect people to be happy. For now, I have gone into hibernation.”

Asked if he would support the PDP candidate in the 2023 elections, he said: “I am in hibernation. I am praying. When I finish the prayers, whatever God directs me to do, I will do. We expect Atiku to do more but we are not seeing that.”

In response to a question on claims that Wike was avoiding people from Atiku’s camp, who had made many attempts to reach him, Ortom said: “They should stop that. Atiku should go to him; why won’t he ignore their calls? Is that not an insult? Wike is a pillar in the party; currently, nobody in the party has contributed more for the party to move forward than Wike.

“If Atiku was not going to honour the decision of the committee, he should have called Wike earlier and informed him. He didn’t do that; you can’t do things anyhow and expect us to be happy.”

In an address at the inauguration, the party’s presidential running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, charged members of the council to work hard to deliver Osun State to the PDP.

While calling for vigilance, Okowa said: “We are very much aware of the events that took place four years ago. There is no doubt that PDP won that election but unfortunately, we were cheated out of the election. As we move into another election, we are confident that if all of us stay committed to the party we will be able to deliver the victory for our party.

“Osun State obviously is a PDP state. We have great leaders who have a very clear understanding of the politics in that state.

“I want to urge all our leaders and our followers in the state to please quickly bridge the gaps of divide among us because victory stares us right in the face. God has gone ahead of us. It is for us to follow the wish of God and to deliver the state to the PDP.”

He admitted that there was still a lot of work to be done but expressed confidence that members of the council were equal to the task.

He appealed to members to ensure they were on ground to support the party and its candidate during the election.

In his remarks, the Deputy National Chairman (North), Umar Damagun, reminded members of the council that their main task is to deliver for the party.

“I believe with the calibre of people that have been selected to steer this campaign organisation, I have no doubt that you will give us the desired result,” he said.

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